Dear Bucketofbolts:

LimeWire slows down my computer, too.

It is a heavy program that requires lots of resources. I am running Windows XP, and by using Ctrl-Alt-Del to open the Task Manager, I can see that LW places a heavy burden on my "commit cache."

I get the feeling that what you want to do is run LW in the background and still be able to do something else with your computer. The short answer is, you have to have a lot of computer in order to run LimeWire and still do other things.

My Dell computer came with lots of software loaded that I didn't need, and didn't want, and I have freed lots of memory by disabling or totally removing useless software. hkcmd.exe, for example, is an Intel program that is totally unnecessary, but to make it go away and release the memory that it occupied, I first had to discover what it was, and then disable it.

Most computer owners have software running that they neither need nor want, and this is especially true of us who bought a computer already preloaded with software. Off-the-shelf computers that seem like a bargain always have lots of preloaded software that place a burden on system resources, and what you have to do is decide which programs you want to keep and which you want to uninstall.

Get rid of the crap you don't want, and you'll find that your computer will stand up and do tricks that you didn't expect it could do.

So without even knowing what your particular situation is, Bucketofbolts, I suspect you have lots of programs running in the background, many of which you neither need nor want, that are slowing your computer down even before you try to load and run LimeWire.

My computer is a low-end, rather crappy thing, but I can run LimeWire, listen to music from ShoutCast, play a modest video game, explore my hard drive, and do all this without overheating my processor. I accomplished this by getting rid of the programs I didn't need and didn't want.

I hope this helps you somehow. I can't offer you specific help; it's more a general idea.

Donkeyboy